CHAPTER XII.

MARCH-MAY 1863.

The

THE close of the financial year 1862-63 afforded legitimate cause of satisfaction. The chief branch of the national trade had been suddenly cut off. Half a million of the population had been reduced to a condition of dependence upon charity, and the country had been deprived of their wealth-making labour. They had lost during the year 7,000,000l. in wages, and 65,000,000l. of fixed capita! had been rendered to a great extent unproductive. The luxuries of a large portion of the population living outside the cotton districts, had been curtailed in order that their value might be given to the charitable funds for the relief of Lancashire distress. The savings-banks had suffered an unusual drain to the extent of 2,000,000l., but yet the victory of the Exchequer was complete and decisive. In the Budget of 1862, the revenue for this year, ending 31st March, 1863, had been estimated at 70,190,000l. calculations upon which this estimate was framed, must have been made at a time when it was impossible to foretell the consequences or the continuance of the Cotton Famine. At the close of a year made memorable by the forced suspension of the cotton trade, inflicting all the penalties of famine upon a district containing one-tenth of the population of Great Britain, it could hardly have been surprising if the estimate had considerably exceeded the actual revenue. But the reverse was the fact. The actual receipts of revenue for 1862-63 exceeded the estimate by 533,561., while the expenditure for the year showed a more than equally favourable condition. The estimate of expenditure had been 70,040,000l., but the actual payments fell short of this sum by 737,992l., thus giving to Mr. Gladstone a total surplus of 1,301,5531. The

only item of the revenue which gave certain token of the Cotton Famine was the receipts for excise duties. The consumption of alcoholic liquors had considerably decreased, owing to the loss of wages by the operatives. This reduction was estimated to be as much as half a pint per head for the whole population of the cotton districts; but the gain to their health-the consequence of this compulsory temperance-had been far greater than the loss to the revenue.

This was no illusory triumph-no financial victory won by the questionable aid of rentes or greenbacks, but the honest result of individual co-operation. England had not mortgaged her future to produce this revenue, for the National Debt was less this year than last by nearly 1,000,000l., and the balances in the Exchequer exceeded by nearly 2,000,000l. their amount in 1862. This had been a time, moreover, pre-eminently distinguished for the remission of taxation. A long list of duties had been swept away by the French treaty, the paper duty had died an uneasy death, and the remission of the hop duty had cut away the time-honoured grievance of the agriculturalists of the home counties. It was this policy, indeed, which had made the revenue of 1862-63 possible of attainment; this victory was, in fact, the triumph of freetrade, the splendid testimonial to the national benefits of unrestricted competition. For the trade of the country, loosed from all fetters, had, without the evidence of effort, compensated for a stoppage in one direction by an increased activity in all others.

While finance is the immediate subject of remark, it will be most fitting to mention the balance-sheet of the Mansion House Committee, whose funds were first audited on the 4th April, 1863. In this, as in the financial statement of the Central Relief Committee, there is observable the same scrupulous regard for the integrity of the fund. The cost of advertisements exceeded 2,700l., but this may be also regarded as the cost of collection, and the remainder of the 'expenses' does not amount to 1,000l. This committee had been accused of unduly holding back in its expenditure, but one statement is a sufficient refutation of the charge. The Cotton Famine had not yet passed away, yet this committee had already disbursed four-fifths of their receipts.

Early in April, the Staleybridge rioters were tried at Chester. As the prisoners were but a few of the guilty, there was unwillingness to press the graver charge of housebreaking. Including those from Dukinfield and Hyde, about twenty were convicted of rioting, and sentenced to imprisonment for terms varying from one to six months. The punishment was not severe, but its lenity had the advantage of preventing any sympathy for the foolish lads, who had done what they could to bring into disrepute a class vastly superior to themselves in every respect.

But these disturbances had unsettled the lower ranks of the unemployed, and at several places threatening movements were made, which, but for the influence of their superiors, might have proceeded to serious consequences. At Stockport an attempt was made to foment disorder, by a similar class to that which had been guilty of rioting in the Staleybridge district. A considerable number of men had been employed by the Stockport Board of Guardians in making roads and in other outdoor work. The suggestion of a paltry grievance was sufficient to cause a partial strike and to collect a crowd. A few broken windows were, however, the worst result. The men in the relief schools of Stockport flatly refused to join the rioters, as did the better class of outdoor labourers; and this, together with the resolute attitude of the authorities, quickly succeeded in quelling the disturbance.

At Wigan the same agitation prevailed. A procession, numbering four hundred of the recipients of relief, marched to the workhouse, where the board of guardians was assembled, to lay before them a bill of complaints. 'Their hours of work, from seven to five, were considered too long; the guardians were not sufficiently liberal; and they had been called "savages" by a local paper.' It turned out that the local paper had been stating that the use of the epithet 'savages' by another journal was libellous, and ultimately all the grievances melted into cheers, and the difficulty concluded with a willing resumption of work.

The operatives of Ashton-under-Lyne made a movement, but of a more pacific character. The Working Men's Executive Committee of Ashton-under-Lyne issued an address to their fellow-countrymen, asking for their

assistance in obtaining a more liberal scale of relief, and calling for petitions to Parliament in order to obtain a grant from the Consolidated fund. The possible intention of this paper was to support Mr. Ferrand's announced intention of bringing the subject of Lancashire distress before the House of Commons, upon its assembling after the Easter recess. A memorial was also presented by the unemployed operatives of this borough to the Central Executive Committee, praying for greater liberality in the distribution of relief. Cases of individual hardship there might and must have been, but there was certainly no general ground for this complaint, and Ashton had received a lion's share of the relief funds. The rate of relief in most places now exceeded 2s. per head, and both the approach of summer and the rising price of manufactures, promised an increase of employment out of doors as well as in the cotton factories. These grievances were oftener hatched by idleness than founded on good reason; indeed, the greatest sufferers, as a class, were now the small shopkeepers and small property-owners, upon whom the continued distress was telling much more severely than upon those who had now been for a long time dependent on the relief funds.

But the wave of discontent which was passing over the district most nearly threatened to submerge order at Preston, where, up to this time, great distress had been borne without audible complaint. For some months past, the Preston Board of Guardians had provided outdoor labour for a large number of their dependents. Upwards of five hundred were engaged in earthwork upon land called the 'Moor,' adjoining the town, and in preparing the site for a cattle market. The labour of these men was in proportion to the relief they received, from three to six days a week; so that a married man receiving ten shillings a week, would work twice as many hours as a single man receiving five shillings a week. But their hours of labour had for some time past been nominal only, and the superintending committee now determined that they should properly fulfil their task. The announcement of this decision was made the occasion of disorderly proceedings. The men kept to their work, but intentionally got through so little, that payment for results was had resort to, and

this caused a general strike. A relief school, numbering about six hundred scholars,' was turned out,' and soon a crowd of four or five thousand persons had gathered round the police office. A deputation was appointed to confer with the mayor and the borough authorities. An hour's interview eventuated in the following characteristic address to the crowd by a member of the complainants' deputation :

Them that has worked at the Cattle Market and on the Moor, and has done their work and are booked, Mr. Ascroft will look to see that they are paid; and them that has gone away and has left their work as soon as they was booked, will not be expected to be paid.' (Groans.) They will be paid to-morrow, those that has worked.' (Renewed groans and uproar, and cries of We hev nought to eyt to-neet.') 'Them as is book'd 'll be paid, but them as isn't book'd 'll not be paid, and them as couldn't work for want of tools 'll be paid.' (Cries of There's plenty of tools,' and 'Some on us hevn't bitten sin mornin'.') 'You are to go to work i' th' mornin', and work accordin' to th' papper.' (We won't go,' and great hooting.) The six days' men are to have a day for themselves beside Saturday.' (Voices: We are just the same as we wor, if not worse.')

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Hungry men are always most unreasoning, and as agitation is not paid by wages, it may be supposed that these poor fellows, who had spent a day or two in defining and exposing their complaints, were very much famished. Empty stomachs cannot digest arguments, and too little food is the law-breaker's best excuse, particularly if his own want is spurred by the destitution of his wife and family. The crowd was hungry and excited, but it was not riotous; it could not appreciate the justice of the conduct of the authorities, yet, for the most part, it was determined to keep the peace. But a crowd of five thousand persons is not all of one mind, as a gentle rain of brickbats on the outside of the Preston police-office now seemed to show. Those behind cried forward," and those before cried back," until the police made a sortie and retreat became general. The military were called out, but were soon afterwards marched back again, and three youths appeared before the magistrates the next morning as the scapegoats for the multitude. The affair was over; it had never been

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